I new to TripAdvisor, why I am late on writing this: My age 50. Wife and I did not go on a package. Just picked air plane and hotel and booked it ourseleves.

My first trip to Las Vegas(July 2006). I heard all the stories about cheap food, rooms, and ect. I picked Stratoshpere due to lowest price on the strip. It's the first hotel on the strip. The room was just a plain room one price during the week and went up on the weekend.

Arrived and stood in long line for 30 min waiting to check in. Got to desk and they could not find my reservation, I insited they look again still no find. They tried to blow me off and a manager came over found nothing. I pulled out the internet receipt and they got me a room. No sorry, no comp of anything. Went to room just a plain hotel room. To me the price I paid was equal to any same room through out most of the USA. We paid for everymeal there although we had their card and played the majority of our money in thier hotel. I would order a drink while playing video black jack and it was common the waitress would rarely come back. Their night club was totally empty except 2 groups of a total of about 11 people on a Friday night.
I found the front desk people useless.
The waitress missing.
When asking questions to the staff about the hotel I received short rude answers as if they don't have time to help me.
There buffet often was behind in haveing all their items. I was just a simple buffet not near as good as a Golden Coral and more expensive that a Golden Coral. Also their
breakfast buffet long lines waiting for eggs to order they used 1 cook who would often wander off for stuff. Many people would just leave the line and find something else. Again let me repeat Golden Corral is way better and cheaper. (I do not know if a Golden Corral is in Las Vegas, for this I used N.C. and midWest as a $ comparison). They do not care what so ever about you.

In short; Stratosphere really turned me off to Las Vegas, below are some spots that showed the opposite of Stratoshpere. I plan to try old towne this year 2009. I will try Boyd Vacations Hawaii this year and see

Let me say some good... unfortunately it will be other places.
Bellogio: Played slots and got plenty of free drinks quickly.
Bellogio: Best steak I ever ate and the waiter was awesome in service and politeness.
Calf: Front desk very helpfull when I was looking to move out of Stratosphere.
Freemont: Played here and again plenty of free drinks.
Old towne Crispy Creme Donuts. While munching donuts the manager came out we engaged him in conversation and he sat with us and gave wife and I friendly advice to enjoy Las Vegas.

I going to give Vegas another try but thanks to the Hotel Stratosphere it took me from 2006 now 2009 to want to go back.

We stayed at the Stratosphere at the beginning of June this year and found it to be quite a pleasant stay. Our room was very clean and tidy and excellent value for money. Staff were very nice and helpful. We ate at Lucky's (24 hour cafe), food was tasty and plentiful, my partner just loved the "all day breakfast" for $5.99!! We had a meal at Roxy's Dinner, brilliant atmosphere with great music. We went to see the show with the different stars, two tickets for the price of one, what a bargain!! Lots of good slots and tables. Gym was free, which is a bonus as many hotels actually charge. Yes, the hotel is quite away from the strip, but to be honest we caught the monorail and found this quite reasonable and we were able to nip up and down the strip. "Fremont Street" is a must if you visit Vegas, although very different from the strip, the live music and atmosphere is great!! We enjoyed our stay and would have stayed with them for the full 10 days that we were in Vegas, but unfortunately we found the pool area far too noisy, I agree that Vegas is a 24 hour city, but flying from London UK (13 hours in total) sometimes you just want to rest by the pool! Unfortunately the pool area was blasted with R n B music, don't get me wrong, I love the music, but not when I'm trying to rest!! Shame really....anyway I would recommend this hotel. If you plan to go to Vegas, have fun, we did and fingers crossed we will return next year!!

The Stratosphere was alot of fun...Plenty of shopping at their mall in the hotel...Plenty of restaurants to choose from and alot of games and slots to play at this casino for less money....We stayed in a Spa Suite with a strip view for what it would cost to get a basic room at a higher end hotel...We loved it...Rooms are modern...I even got to see their cheapest room available and it was roomy and very modern.... The pool on the 8th floor was hugh and a nice setting with poolside bar and eatery with plenty of lounge chairs to relax under the sun.....The Tower with the rides is awesome and would have to say most people visiting Vegas come to see the tower...While you stay here you get to go up for free as much as you would like while others have to pay..Great views, shops, bar and restaurant at top of the tower....All in all...great place to stay with all the ammentities of a 5 star hotel for alot LOT less....

We arrived about an hour before normal check in time and found almost no line. Within 2 minutes we were at the desk. They let us go ahead and check in even though we were early. We got to our room which was in the Premiere tower and it was nice; certainly nothing to complain about. It was cleaned every day as expected. The Casino wasn't as smoke filled as I'd feared so that was definitely a plus. The Stratosphere is a little north of the rest of the strip but it's only a two block walk to the Sahara where there's a monorail station that can take you up and down the strip. There's also a bus stop there if you'd prefer to go that route. The only real negatives we experienced were at two of the restaurants there. Lucky's Cafe had bad service and bad food. Roxy's Diner had good food, but the service wasn't any good at all. One of the days we decided to try their all day buffet for $19.99. That turned out to be a pretty good deal as you can go back as many times as you like all day long. Overall it was definitely a good experience and we got an amazing deal on the room.